The Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-BRAZIL): Objectives and Design

Abstract

Brazil is experiencing one of the world's fastest demographic aging worldwide. This demographic transition is occurring in a context of few resources and great social inequalities. The Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil) is a nationally representative study of 9,412 people aged 50 years and over, residing in 70 municipalities across the 5 great Brazilian regions. The study allows investigations of the aging process, its health, psychosocial and economic determinants and societal consequences. The baseline examination (2015–16) included detailed household and individual interviews and physical measurements (blood pressure, anthropometry, grip strength, timed walk and balance tests). Blood tests and samples storage were performed in a sub-sample of study participants. Subsequent waves are planned every 3 years. The study adopts a common conceptual framework of other great-scale longitudinal studies of aging in the world, namely Health and Retirement family, allowing cross-national comparisons. The goal of ELSI-Brazil is not only to build an understanding of aging in a large Western middle-income country in rapid demographic transition, but also to provide scientific data for to support and study policy changes that may affect older adults. This paper describes the methodology of the study and some descriptive results of the baseline survey.